Various items may be used during medical procedures, such as implants, instruments, medicines, bandages, and so on. In many instances, it is difficult to determine which sizes of implant components will be needed, since the decision of which size to use is often determined after surgery begins.
When needed items are not readily available in the operating room, risks to the patient increase significantly. Delays in obtaining needed implants may increase the length of the procedure, potentially increasing the amount of anesthesia the patient needs and increasing opportunities for infection. If the correct implant is not available, a surgeon may attempt to use a size that is not ideal, which may cause pain or reduced function later on, and potentially the need for a future revision surgery. In some instances, if the surgeon's preferred implant system is not available, the surgeon may attempt to use a different implant system that the surgeon is not as familiar with, which may increase risks of surgeon error.
There are also significant risks to patients due to potential human error in selecting implant components. Implanting the wrong size of implant component, or implanting incompatible components together, can increase the risk of poor patient outcomes, such as pain, reduced function, premature failure requiring revision procedures. Prior to surgery, it is often difficult for surgeons to determine which sizes and types of implants will be needed for a given patient. Techniques that rely on radiographic templating are subject to inaccuracies and human error, and require patients to be exposed to X-rays. Further, manual templating requires additional surgeon time, and results may not be communicated to the medical facility where the surgery is to be performed.
Providing implants for surgery may also be challenging because the size or type of implant needed may not be determined until the time of surgery or shortly before. For example, surgeons sometimes need to make intraoperative decisions that affect which implant is used. After making bone cuts on a femur during a knee replacement procedure, for example, the resulting bone shape may be in between implant sizes. Some surgeons prefer to use the larger size, and some surgeons prefer to use the smaller size. If a surgeon's preferences are not known, many different implants may need to be provided so that the appropriate implant is available.
As a result, determining which implants, tools, and other items to provide at a medical facility, and in what quantities, can be challenging for surgical teams as well as for hospital administrators.